Chester City F.C.
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Template:Football club infobox Chester City Football Club is an English football club from Chester, currently playing in Football League Two.
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Current first team squad
As of March 2005:
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Those "released 2005" were the players sold by new boss Kieth Curle upon his arrival. Long serving players Wayne Brown (the only player to have been in the old Division Three for Chester, during the Terry Smith era) and Paul Carden.
History
The club was founded as Chester FC by the merger of Chester Rovers and Old King's Scholars in 1885 and initially played their home games at Faulkner Street. After a few years of playing only friendly matches, they joined the Combination League in 1890. In 1898 the club moved to The Old Showground, but were forced to leave a year later when the ground was destroyed to make way for housing (leaving the club unable to regularly compete). In 1901, however, they moved to Whipcord Lane. Again their stay was only brief, as they moved out in 1906. Their new stadium on Sealand Road, called simply The Stadium became their first long-term home and provided them with their first league success, as they won the Combination League in 1909.
In 1910, Chester moved to the Lancashire Combination League and stayed their until after World War I, when they became founder members of the Cheshire County League (which they won many times in the 1920s).
But in 1931, Chester achieved their goal of being elected to The Football League - then the best football league in all of England and Wales. They played in one of the two parallel lowest divisions of the League, the Third Division (North). When the two third divisions were unified into national third and fourth divisions in 1958, Chester found themselves in the lower Fourth Division. In 1975, they achieved their first ever promotion and moved up to the Third Division, but were relegated back to the Fourth Division in 1982. In 1983, they changed their name to Chester City FC and proceeded to returned to the Third Division in 1986. In 1990, they moved out of their The Stadium and temporarily shared Macclesfield's Moss Rose ground before moving to the brand new Deva Stadium (now the Saunders Honda Stadium) in 1992 (the stadium is notable for crossing the England-Wales border: it has one goal in England and one goal in Wales). The creation of the FA Premier League that same year meant that The Football League's three remaining divisions were renamed and the Third Division became known as the Second Division. After just one year under the new division names and in their new home, they were relegated to the Third Division. Things got worse in 1999, when they finished bottom of the division (and the entire Football League) and were relegated to the Football Conference.
Life in the Conference was hard and Chester were almost relegated to the regional Northern Premier League in 2000. However, they survived and steadily improved, especially after the arrival of manager Mark Wright in January 2002. In 2003, they finished second in the Conference, but failed to win the playoffs and therefore promotion. They began the 2003-04 season as favourites to win the Football Conference. They were declared champions on 17 April after a 1-0 victory over Scarborough. As a result they gained promotion back to The Football League's League Two (formerly the Third Division), following a four year absence.
On August 8th 2004, Chester were left managerless after Mark Wright left the day before the new season began. Assistant manager Dave Moss (who only joined the club after the end of the last season in May) also left, along with the rest of the management team. Ray Mathias immediately became caretaker manager, but was soon replaced by ex-player Ian Rush, who in turn resigned on 5 April 2005 after his assistant manager was sacked without Rush being consulted. David Bell was made caretaker manager and managed to secure the side's league survival for another year.
Honours
Football Conference
Welsh Cup
External Links
- Official site (http://www.chestercityfc.net/)
- Fan site (http://www.chester-city.co.uk/)
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League competitions |
Cup competitions | |
| FA Premier League | FA Cup | |
| The Football League (Champ, 1, 2) | England (men) | League Cup |
| Football Conference (Nat, N, S) | FA Community Shield | |
| Northern Premier League (Prem, 1) | (women) | Football League Trophy |
| Southern League (Prem, 1W, 1E) | List of clubs | FA Trophy |
| Isthmian League (Prem, 1, 2) | FA Vase | |
| English football league system | Records | FA NLS Cup |
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